A Royal Navy without an aircraft carrier does not really deserve the name. That is why, belatedly, by 2020, we should have a fully functioning proper-sized aircraft carrier, recently named the Queen Elizabeth by the reigning monarch smashing a bottle of malt against its hull.

But an aircraft carrier without aircraft? Now that would be bordering on the negligent.

Nobody is suggesting that the US-built F-35 Lightning will not be ready to board and defend the Queen and the UK’s interests on the high seas by the end of the decade, but missing your much-publicised first date to show yourself